Caracas | A general expectation that
Hugo Chavez
’s hand-picked successor will win next weekend’s presidential election didn’t dim the spirits of more than 100,000 backers of challenger
Henrique Capriles
, who jammed the capital’s centre on Sunday.

Most of the people who converged by foot in the city centre on a hot, sunny afternoon tried to shrug off forecasts of victory for
Nicolas Maduro
, who was sworn in as acting president after Hugo Chavez died on March 5 from cancer.

Mr Capriles said the big turnout in the capital was evidence that he would win at the ballot box next Sunday.

“Today the streets of Caracas were filled with happiness, today the streets of Caracas were filled with hope, today the streets of Caracas confirm what’s going to happen," Mr Capriles said.

Mr Chavez had defeated Mr Capriles in October but by the slimmest margin of his 14-year tenure as president.

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Mr Maduro, who rose from bus driver and union organiser to foreign minister under Mr Chavez, is expected to benefit from an emotional outpouring of solidarity among Chavistas who have benefited from the generous social welfare state he created under the socialist banner.

But many critics contend that Mr Maduro has been saddled with a fiscal hangover due to heavy Mr Chavez spending before October’s vote.

Jesus Barroso, a 52-year-old retiree, said he believed Mr Maduro would win handily next Sunday. But he predicted Mr Maduro would not be able complete the six-year term because economic and social woes would prompt Venezuelans to remove him through a recall.

“I don’t think he’ll last very long in the presidency," Mr Barroso said.

Supporters of Mr Capriles chanted anti-government slogans and waved red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flags as they converged on a main avenue in downtown Caracas, where the 40-year-old governor of central Miranda state, was scheduled to speak.

“He’s capable of offering opportunities to get us out of this disaster," Maria De Llano said of Mr Capriles, noting that she had difficulty finding some medicines and foods such as sugar and chicken due to sporadic shortages.

Meanwhile, Maduro invoked Chavez during a rally in the southern state of Apure, telling his backers that “El Comandante" is watching over them from Heaven.

“He’s protecting us," said Maduro, speaking as if Chavez were omnipresent.

Indeed, images of Chavez seem to be everywhere in Venezuela. His smiling face is posted on billboard along highways. State-run television channels regularly broadcast footage of his speeches.

And Maduro’s campaign organizers set up loudspeakers that play sound bites of Chavez’s voice at rallies.

A recent poll by the independent polling firm Datanalisis showed Capriles trailed Maduro 49 percent to 35 percent in a sampling of 800 voters from March 11-13. The poll, with 16 percent of respondents undecided, had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.